Archive for October, 2010

We got to the beach just too late to see the dolphins, but we paddled south in their direction anyway, having no other goal. Sea and sky were placid and I took pictures of some schools of fish to try out the new camera. We were most of the way to Notrí and thinking of turning back when Alex spotted the commotion, apparently between Danzante and Puerto Escondido, big creatures jumping well clear of the water and splashing back down audibly — and heading in our direction. They didn’t seem like the dolphins though, there were just a few, at least three, maybe four visible at once. I was trying to get the salt water off the camera lens, ready to take pictures in the air again, but before I finished they were past us. They were closer than they looked because they were smaller than we imagined — big rays though, this time probably sting rays, not like the devil ray we watched in June. It was amazing how long they seemed to stay in the air. It really does look like they’re flying. It must seem like that to them too — they keep flapping their wings as they slice through the air.

We paddled a bit yesterday for the first time in a couple of months, having been away for part of the summer. The day was mild and it was calm in the morning, so we set out toward the north just after ten o’clock. The wind didn’t come up until nearly two, and by then we had spent a little time afloat with our new waterproof camera.

From Loreto’s big arroyo south for miles, the coastline is beachy. The international airport occupies a large portion of this flat area, but starting near the southeast corner of the airport there is a long string of shelters, beginning with three distinct clumps of palapas. The center of these clumps, where the accompanying photo was taken, has a pit toilet just across the road. I suspect that the rectangular shelters further south were built earlier: there is a toilet vault there which has been sealed.

These are not the most picturesque beaches in the area and are not popular campsites for kayaks, but they see a lot of day use, not surprising since they are accessible from town. We see them as often by bicycle as by boat. The road becomes impassible, depending on the tide and your mood, before or after the last shelter — inland “shortcuts” connect all the way to the arroyo just north of Nopoló however, and some lead out to the highway.